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Sunday, 31 December 2017

"The Way of a Pilgrim"is the English title of a 19th-century Russian work, recounting the narrator's journey as a mendicant pilgrim across Russia while practising the Jesus Prayer. It uses a pilgrim's journey as a vehicle to teach the practice of ceaseless inner prayer and communion with God.

It has become in the West a classic
of Russian Orthodox spirituality. No book has inspired more people to set out to discover
the inner springs that nurture the life of Orthodox
Christians and to learn the practice of the Jesus
Prayer. It has been for many, a revelation about the life of
prayer.

This aim of union with God, is central to
the Prayer in the Name of Jesus. Brief in form, it leads
the soul to concentration and sets it face to face with
God. Its tenor is such as will fix and bind into one all
the forces of man, spiritual, mental, and corporal, in
that single act of perfect devotion— loving adoration.
It endows the being with absolute stability. At the
same time it strips the soul of all subjectivity, all self-seeking,
and sets it in the objectivity of the divine. It is
both the path and the culmination of renunciation
and self-denial.

The following excerpt is from the book “The Way of a Pilgrim”:

THE SECRET OF SALVATION, REVEALED BY
UNCEASING PRAYER:

How is one saved?

This godly question naturally arises
in the mind of every Christian who realizes the injured and
enfeebled nature of man, and what is left of its original urge
towards truth and righteousness. Everyone who has even
some degree of faith in immortality and recompense in the
life to come is involuntarily faced by the thought, " How am
I to be saved? " when he turns his eyes towards heaven. When he tries to find a solution of this problem, he enquires
of the wise and learned. Then under their guidance he reads
edifying books by spiritual writers on this subject, and sets
himself unswervingly to follow out the truths and the rules
he has heard and read. In all these instructions he finds constantly
put before him as necessary conditions of salvation a
devout life, and heroic struggles with himself which are to
issue in decisive denial of self. This is to lead him on to the
performance of good works, to the constant fulfilment of
God's laws, and thus witness to the unshakableness and
firmness of his faith. Ask God. Pray to God. Pray for His help.

The seeker comes across the book called
Philokalia, in which twenty-five holy Fathers set forth in an
understandable way the scientific knowledge of the truth
and of the essence of prayer of the heart. He sees that truly to pray means to direct the
thought and the memory, without relaxing, to the
recollection of God, to walk in His divine Presence, to
awaken oneself to His love by thinking about Him, and to
link the Name of God with one's breathing and the beating
of one's heart. He is guided in all this by the invocation with
the lips of the most Holy Name of Jesus Christ, or by saying
the Jesus Prayer at all times and in all places and during
every occupation, unceasingly. These luminous truths, by
enlightening the mind of the seeker and by opening up
before him the way to the study and achievement of prayer,
help him to go on at once to put these wise teachings into
practice.

Sunday, 17 December 2017

From The "Pathway to God through the Thiruvaachakam" by G.VanmikanathanYou gave Yourself to me and took me in exchange; Oh Shankara, Who, indeed, is the cleverer one of us two?Infinite Bliss I gained, what did You gain from me?Oh Mighty Lord who has occupied my mind as Your shrine,Oh Sivan Who abides in Thirupperunthurai,Oh my Father, Oh Lord of the Universe,my body You have taken as Your abode,for this I have nothing to offer in return. T22.10தந்தது, உன்-தன்னை; கொண்டது, என்-தன்னை;சங்கரா! ஆர்-கொலோ, சதுரர்?அந்தம் ஒன்று இல்லா ஆனந்தம் பெற்றேன்;யாது நீ பெற்றது ஒன்று, என் பால்?சிந்தையே கோயில் கொண்ட எம் பெருமான்!திருப்பெருந்துறை உறை சிவனே!எந்தையே! ஈசா! உடல் இடம் கொண்டாய்;யான் இதற்கு இலன், ஓர் கைம்மாறே! தி 22.10

Sunday, 10 December 2017

From the "Pathway to God through Thiruvaachakam" by G.VanmikanathanHallowed be Namachchivaaya [Your Name]! Hallowed be the feet of Naathan [the Lord]!Hallowed be the feet of Him Who never departs from my heart even for as long as it takes to wink!Hallowed be the feet of the precious gem of a Guru, Who in Kokazhi assumed lordship over me!Hallowed be the feet of Him, Who in the guise of the Agamaas, Stands close [to beings and pours grace on them]!Hallowed be the feet of the One, The Many, the Immanent!நமச்சிவாய வாழ்க! நாதன் தாள் வாழ்க!இமைப்பொழுதும் என் நெஞ்சில் நீங்கதான் தாள் வாழ்க!கோகழி ஆண்ட குருமணி தன் தாள் வாழ்க!ஆகமம் ஆகி நின்று அண்ணிப்பான் தாள் வாழ்க!ஏகன், அநேகன், இறைவன் அடி வாழ்க!

Sunday, 3 December 2017

2017 1203 49 Pathway to God through Thiruvaachakam : ThiruvaachakopanishadFrom The "Pathway to God through the Thiruvaachakam" by G.Vanmikanathan

Saint-Poet Maanikkavaachakar

The "poet of ruby utterances" Maanikkavaachakar sings the song of eternity, Thiruvaachakam, with a clear and serene voice, making available to the Tamils, the samepathway to God even as the Upanishads do. This "Thiruvaachakopanishad", so to say, has the nature of an autobiographical work on the Pathway to God trodden by Maanikkavaachakar.